Chapter 16

I woke up dogpiled in a cuddle. The dorm room beds were twins, a struggle for me and one girl. It wasn’t a question of big spoon / little spoon. I woke up in the cutlery drawer after someone had taken out the sorting tray and dumped it violently back in.

Lynsey was sleeping face down on my chest and Paula was sleeping face up on Lynsey’s shoulders. I don’t know how Ira got her arm and knee under me. She was pancaked against the wall. Vickie was curled up like a puppy on the foot of my bed. She had my foot clamped in the crook of her knee.

Marie had taken the other bed for herself.

Dove was gone.

“Holy fuck...” I moaned pitiably.

“Morning,” Lynsey kissed my throat. Unable to move other than that.

My head was still fighting through the vivid clouds of last night. I had to know. What had I done?

“Psst, Paula!”

“Oh for fuck’s sake let me sleep. My vagina is dead. Beaten and clubbed into submission. Shut up.”

She was snoring out the word up.

Sunlight was filtering through the window. It was late January, We were all probably late for class. I know engineering nerds like Paula and Marie had eight thirty classes.

“Oh, god! I gotta go!” Marie announced, confirming my suspicions. She managed to scoop up her clothes from the spiderweb of discards. She kissed me quickly. “Scope!” she suggested and bolted out the door.

“How the hell did she get ready that quick?” Ira said.

“She’s gonna run over to her place to get her clothes and then a shower,’ Paula said. “Screw it! There’s no school today! Stop squirming and sleep!”

“Paula!” I said, again.

“What?” she whined.

“How gay are you?”

“I’m not, I’m in love with you,” she said. “Oh fuck! Now I’m awake! Asshole!”

“Um...”

“Shit, I’ll fuck the other girls to keep the peace,” Paula said, throwing herself morosely onto her feet. “And for the orgasms. And because Lynsey’s got a tight butt.”

“Ow!” Lynsey shouted for being smacked on the cheek.

“Oh shut up,” Paula said. “The orgies are great and all, but don’t forget I’m a great one on one date.”

Paula kissed me.

“Cool, I’ll take you out,” Ira said. “Dinner and a movie?”

“Yes,” Paula said, leaning over and kissing a welcoming Ira. “Huh. You know I’m straight?”

“Yeah, I, uh, wired some things together so you’d stop thinking too much about everything.”

“Thinking too much gives you wrinkles!” she said in ditzy elation.

“Vickie’s gonna age beautifully,” Lynsey said. The words were an insult but the tone was sheer joy.

Paula was hooking her bra closed as she crossed the hall to her dorm room.

“Do you think we should cut out Jordan’s heart and eat it whole to absorb his powers?” One of the guys in the hall asked.

“Yeah, it’s really you’re only hope,” Avril said, tauntingly. She entered my room and closed the door behind her.

“Mornin’!” I said.

“I felt you wiggling in my heart last night, before you conked out,” she said.

“Yeah,” I said. “You’re one of my girls now.”

“Why should I be a one man woman if you’re not a one woman man?”

“I am a one relationship man,” I said.

“Cheeky. Still, you have three hot bodies on you,” she sighed. “I can’t say it’s the worst thing. I’ll be by on Wednesday night for the full brainfuck. Cool?”

“Hot,” I said.

“Man, why is it always the dorks with me?” she said, shaking her head. “You guys are gonna miss breakfast if you don’t get a move on.”

“Fine!” Vickie said, walking herself off the bed with her hands until she was balanced on just her fingertips and toes. She tried a handstand, got halfway up and collapsed down onto her shoulders.

“I’m OK!”

Avril waved goodbye. Lynsey held on tightly as Ira climbed over us. I squeezed Lynsey and swung her out of bed. We stood in a naked circle. Well, I suppose four of us make a square. Parallelogram? Rhombus.

“So, I didn’t really push Paula well enough. Lynsey. You’re the one I played with the most, how are you different? How are things better?” I asked.

She frowned, tilted her head, thinking.

“She doesn’t look at me like I’m a leper anymore,” Vickie said. She stepped over and hugged Lynsey.

“There’s that,” Lynsey said, pushing Vickie gently off. “I think there’s more to do.”

“Did you have to look me in the eye when you realized that?” Ira asked, sighing.

“Yeah, I did,” she said. “But last night was intense. Do you think doing that every night is even feasible?”

“No,” I said. “I’m going to do girls in pairs.”

“Me and Paula? Vickie and Ira? Dove and Kitty? I guess that forces Marie and Avril together?” Lynsey said. “And Avril’s good for wednesday? Do you want me to mock up a schedule? Girls. We could book our time and get things working more smoothly. I don’t mind–”

“Great, scheduled sex...” Vickie said, “Holy shit that just takes the fun straight out of sex.”

“It really doesn’t,” I said. “The fun is in the sex.”

“No, the delicious nutrients are in the meat,” Vickie said.

“What does–”

“The fun is in the hunt,” she interrupted strongly.

“Well, then,” I said. “Keep your pussy wet. I’m an ambush predator.”

“Rapey...” Ira said, frowning. “I don’t mind the schedule thing, Lynsey. Do you need any help?”

“Uh, I might be better at accepting help after my night,” she said.

“Tell me when my night and Paula’s are, that way we can–”

“Why would you be with Paula, Ira? She’s my roommate. You got your own.”

“Hi!” Vickie was still on the floor. I waved back at her.

“Didn’t you hear? I landed a date night with Paula. We’re coming here for the after after-dinner mints. We’ll wife swap, Lynsey. Make it easy.”

“So that means we’re together?” Vickie said, flatly at Lynsey.

“It means you’re Ira’s wife,” Lynsey retorted. They were about to have a less than fun fight but I, cleverly and intentionally, distracted them with my rumbling stomach.

“Breakfast?” I suggested.

Meal hall only held a handful of stragglers. The walk to Upper Campus was clear due to ugly wet snow. It wasn’t until I sat down in chemistry that I really felt the crushing weight of a hundred human minds. Five minds could feel like eleven in my bedroom. There were nearly a hundred and sixty people in the class, though I doubted everyone made it to class, even on a good day.

I had a choice.

Was I going to fail out?

Was I going to tough through it?

It wasn’t a choice. One woman is a lot of money. I had eight. I had to make it through university if I wanted any hope of handling this power.

I sat by myself, or I tried too. I wasn’t the last one to get to the lecture. I had my hoodie up. This wasn’t good. I owned three and ... Well I suppose I did have three girls to handle my laundry. We were going to be cleaning my sheets as often anyways. That said, I looked like a serial killer, hunched over in the far left side of the lecture hall sizing up the tall skinny post-doc teaching the class.

He wasn’t really in my league.

“You OK? You look green. You’re not sick or contagious or anything? You should stay home if you’re not feeling well.”

“I’m not sick,” I said. “Partied a little too hard last night. Thanks though.”

“OK,” the girl inquiring about my health asked. Even if I could put her straight in the mouth of the hoodie, there’d be a whole funnel of students behind her. And she was cute, sure, but I had a type, nines. This seven girl wasn’t going to cut it.

Great, now I felt like an asshole.

“You’re a good person,” I said.

“I have a boyfriend,” she said, quickly shutting me down. “And I’m not a partier. Especially on a Sunday night.”

“Stop whispering with some guy, Nora,” hissed Good Samaritan Nora’s next neighbor, “some of us are trying to pay attention.”

That’s what I was doing. My fingers shook as I scratched out notes on pencil and paper. I hadn’t even taken out my laptop. Or my textbook. I almost failed at getting a new pencil when the last lead broke in the first one.

I tried. I learned about chirality. Some chemicals go one way, some go the other. And that was enough for very different reactions.

Yeah, I had some hands on experience about that effect.

Was there a way to monetize my power?

Besides brothel. Porn studio. Slave trader.

Fuck.

It would be nice to have a job where Mom would still invite me over for Christmas dinner.

I struggled through the day. English was the only class I had more populated than Chemistry. Back to back, the most impersonal classes I was likely to have through all of university. The multitude of minds was the chittering of bugs in my ears. Sometimes I could feel them landing on my skin. I wasn’t able to say “thank you” to the neighbor who checked in on me in that class.

I burnt the next hour in a small awkward corner of the library. The closest thing to alone I could get on campus. I had missed a couple days worth of classes. I hadn’t touched homework since I had eaten the cookies.

I might’ve started catching up.

I was on my phone instantly.

Kitty was sending a class by class selfie stream looking cute as fuck. I texted her back a heart emoji. The next picture was of her, tongue out and cross-eyed, playing with the fucked silly anime face. The one after that was of her boobs in a public washroom mirror.

A bathroom that wasn’t empty of other girls using the restroom.

“Don’t risk–”

I deleted my text. I needed to get inside her mind and fix things before I started throwing ultimatums at Kitty. There was always part of her mind focused on being the disobedient bad girl of sex.

I needed to see her again.

I tried to tell Dove about Lynsey’s schedule. The sisters were gonna need to work together.

I doubted Kitty would be willing to not finish having sex long enough for me to help her.

Dove was instantly bright and sunny in her, “Hey! Love you! Shower now! I’ll talk before I go to work! Love you!”

She had an easier time dropping the l-words than Paula seemed to. Good.

I was gonna have to love these girls.

All you need is love.

And correcting mind control when love is hard.

I had another class. Not an ultra-full lecture hall but in a simple classroom. There were only fifty five people, max, in my psych class. I got up and sighed.

The weather was letting up but Halifax was a gray and hopeless slush puddle as I crossed the snow to the next building. People were out, mostly smokers wrapped in their intermingled equal parts tobacco and marijuana stenches. I could handle thirty people. Or, I didn’t fall into shivers or shakes even once.